<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Set Out to Adopt (Ended Up As Chosen) by Gemini_Baby</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29945289">Set Out to Adopt (Ended Up As Chosen)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemini_Baby/pseuds/Gemini_Baby'>Gemini_Baby</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dick &amp; Dami Week [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adoption, Adoption papers, Angst, Damian Has Adopted Dick Instead, Dick Grayson is Batman, Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne's Parent, Dick Is Brooding About Adopting Dami, Fluff and Angst, Gen, He is Very Serious Regarding This Adoption, In A Very Cat Way, POV Dick Grayson, damian wayne is adorable</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:06:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29945289</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemini_Baby/pseuds/Gemini_Baby</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick broods over adopting Damian and whether Damian would even like it.</p>
<p>Joke's on him. Damian has already adopted Dick</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson &amp; Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dick &amp; Dami Week [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2198913</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>180</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne's Parent, DickAndDamiWeek2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Set Out to Adopt (Ended Up As Chosen)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written using prompt “<b>Adoption papers</b>” for day 3 of Dick &amp; Dami Week 2021</p>
<p>Thank you so much Ithil for beta reading and helping with this &lt;3 &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>In his room in the penthouse, Dick sits cross legged on the comforter and blankets’ heap on his bed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The papers sit on his lap. They are light as a paper but the weight of them in his hands and on his shoulders as he contemplates a decision remains heavy. His fingers twitch at his sides.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There are two sets of adoption papers in his lap. Technically, both his. One is of him being adopted. The other is of him adopting another person.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>He is transported to that night in the cave, a few years ago, as he remembers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He had returned to the area where the batcomputer was, after taking a shower. His hair had still been wet and a towel was around his shoulders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bruce had given him the papers and a choice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man had been so hesitant. Stumbling over his words. Dick had just smiled at him and told him he loved him, too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It had seemed so easy, back then. The hesitation had just felt something typically like Bruce. Dick had gladly filled the gaps. He had filled the blanks with a smile on his face and shaking his head to himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He knows B loved too much. Had always loved too much. Even if he had sucked at saying it. Words are not everyone’s forte. Dick understood that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>Right now, sitting at the bed in the penthouse, Dick wondered if that hesitation had been something merely typical Bruce’s.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because right now, he feels that maybe it is something not reserved to only Bruce. Maybe this is something every father feels.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With that thought, his eyes are rapidly blinking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Is he a father?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He feels the love a father has for a kid.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>But is he a father?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Blood doesn’t make Bruce his father. But ink on his adoption papers does.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Will Damian even want this?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dick was not his “Father”. He wasn’t what the kid had always looked up to, growing up. He wasn’t whom Damian had longed for.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Dick felt Damian as his kid. Sure, the kid was difficult. But what’s the beauty in the easy love?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A kid as traumatized and as abused as Damian would of course be difficult. The result of childhood abuse was never pretty. And if Damian had been an “easy case”, “not difficult” and “sunshine”, Dick would have been even more concerned. It would have meant a lot of repression and a bigger can of worms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>He moves his legs because he has been sitting cross legged too long and has started losing feeling in them. The curtains on his window fly with the wind and the moonlight peeking through the window.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He misses his dad. Both of his dads. A myriad of scenarios flicker before his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe Damian wouldn’t want this at all. He would tear the pages and stomp his way out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe he would be silent. At the insult of his father’s death. At the irony of being offered to have a father as he mourns the loss of one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>The rumors of Bruce’s return have strengthened more than before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For all they should have been happy, Dick couldn’t help but feel as if he were losing an organ. A vital organ. And was being left to bleed behind, with wounds open, heart carved out and left to die bit by bit. That was all figurative. But that was what Dick had been feeling.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The dead body... they had the dead body of Bruce’s. Every test result had come back right and had proved that the body had been Bruce’s.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The revived creature...that vile monster had played on Damian’s insecurity. He had given him his quite toothy smile and had sneered at the kid. He had uttered each and every word that had haunted Damian’s nightmares from long before, had invaded his dreams and turned them into something evil since he had come to Gotham.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Dick had not been there first when that creature had run wild and had spit that venom.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The past days and weeks have been wild.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They have not been much Damian friendly either.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Flamingo had emptied all his ammo, targeting Damian’s spine, rendering Damian motionless.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The spine transplant had made matters worse. The loss of control over his body had been traumatic. Slade using Damian’s body to try and kill had shaken them both.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damian has asked repeatedly, “What about us?” “What happens to us, Richard?”, “What about us, Richard?” this week.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jokes that Dick had cracked at that time, aside, Dick really didn’t know about them, what would happen to them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Since then, he has been thinking about it. He has been pondering over what he </span>
  <em>
    <span>can </span>
  </em>
  <span>do. How he can take some control back for both of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He can feel the upcoming alienation and scorn at Damian’s way. Disdain directed in the kid’s direction in the coming days. If...when Bruce returns, the moment of rejoicing would be something Damian might come to hate. Something Dick might regret too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He can </span>
  <em>
    <span>hear </span>
  </em>
  <span>the snark leaving the lips, entering the kid’s ears and stabbing his heart as it rips his soul. He can see Damian being doubted, can feel the extra scrutiny he would be getting in the future.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Dick doesn’t know if they will get Bruce back. If they will ever get </span>
  <em>
    <span>the </span>
  </em>
  <span>Bruce back. The Bruce who had raised Dick. The Bruce who had put a smile on young Jason’s face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But with Hush running around wearing their dad’s face and a zombie like creature rising to only taint their dad’s memory, their feelings regarding their dad as he wears their dad’s face and tries to kill his kid, Dick knows that they have to do something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he has to reassure the kid about his place in this family, about his position in Dick’s heart.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Dick has accepted his duty as the guardian and parent of the kid. He won’t let anyone come up to them and harm or hurt Dami. Not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He twirls the pen with his fingers and then puts it away to the side on the blankets upon which he sits, over the bed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He drops the paper as he humphs and flops on the bed and leans back, with his arms behind and supporting the weight of his upper body.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The curtain flies with the wind. Cool air breezing through the window makes the front part of Dick’s hair flop in his eyes and catch him off guard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He combs his hair away from his eyes and back from his forehead through his fingers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He turns his head to the side and looks out the window. Moonlight peaks through.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dick reminisces about the time when they used to travel. Many stars would be decorating the sky. The stars would light up the night sky.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They all would sit in the grassy fields. A cloth spread out on the grass and all of them sitting over it. Some of them would have their hands behind, supporting their upper body weight, on the grass, as they would lean back and stare up at the stars that would wink at them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He remembers his father mentioning that Dick’s eyes twinkled just like the stars above, Dick would laugh and his mother would shake her head in amusement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dick ponders over how he has almost never seen Damian’s eyes twinkle, except that time Alfred had huffed and had been horrified at Damian’s antics when  they had run out of milk and Dami had eaten plain cereal straight out of the box.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dick had rarely seen Damian’s eyes twinkle but he had many times witnessed the gloom of the sunset, the feeling of a setting sun, in those big green eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dick wonders what these eyes have seen, what tortures they have witnessed, what bloodshed they had been there to see and what ghost they see lurking in the corridor of their regrets and memories. It makes Dick’s blood boil, he finds his fingers curling on the comforter and gripping them hard, he might even have yanked a few threads. He doesn’t care about that. He wants it to be Ra’s instead. His neck.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He doesn’t know if Damian would want this. Dick has no intention of blindsiding him. Or going on a trail, Damian is not ready to follow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He doesn't want to do anything that would cause tension in their relationship which has recently started being smooth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Besides, Dami won’t want him as a substitute for a parent. And the kid’s experience with parental figures, especially recently, has been something that has hurt him so much.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Dick needs some time to think it over again. Even though he knows he doesn’t have that much time. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He gets up and puts the papers in the cupboard’s safe. He flops down on his bed. He has a meeting tomorrow morning and he needs his two hours sleep.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He wakes up to see a set of papers on his bed, placed beside his pillow. He sits up and leans against the headboard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The papers are coloured and have crayons and markers used on them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before he can read the contents of the papers, his phone rings. The tone he had set for Lucious. Just then, Dick remembers the meeting he has today. The clock on the top right side of his phone tells him that Dick is running late and then Dick is all but sprinting towards his bathroom to get ready in five minutes. He leaves the room, papers forgotten on the covers of his bed and the movement causing the blanket to cover them, hiding them from view.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Next Chapter: Damian has adopted Dick</p>
<p>(I will hopefully post the next chapter next week)</p>
<p>What are your thoughts for this chapter?</p>
<p>Kudos, comments, bookmarks and user subscription are always welcome and appreciated and they make me smile n happy &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>